ALBUM REVIEW: "Inside the Core"

Even if you are unaware that Rochester musician Susan Krasner practices Integrated Kabbalistic Healing — or maybe you don't know what that even is — it's clear within about five seconds of listening to Krasner' s pretty new disc that there's a whole lot more going on beyond the cascading piano notes. On "Inside the Core" Krasner's angularity and risk taking are dialed way back, yet there is still a jazzy curiosity that glimmers and glows throughout all 16 cuts. Gone as well is that New Age synthetic substitution of a coma in place of emotion. And as with the Yiddish interpretations on her previous album, "Threads," there is no literal defining or explaining to distract the listener from Krasner's lush ebb and flow. "Inside the Core" is elegant, mellow, and melancholy, but stops short of maudlin or minor-key predictability. It really is quite lovely.